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Can abortion be justified in cases other than extreme medical emergency? In the case of an ectopic pregnancy- where the unborn child is growing outside the uterus in a location such as the fallopian tube- the pregnancy usually cannot continue to the point where the child could live and the mother's life is in acute danger. The doctor must remove the child, even though that will kill the child, but that is not the intent of the act. The intent is to remove the danger to the mother's life.

In other cases, the medical condition of a pregnant mother may dictate that the pregnancy not continue to full term, and labor is induced early. All possible care is then given to the premature child in the hopes that it will live.

Where has the belief that abortion can be justified in other cases lead us? To the current practice of killing babies already born, if those babies are 'defective'. Once it would have been unthinkable to refuse to give life-saving medical treatment to a child with Down's Syndrome. Now this refusal is rapidly becoming the norm, even though there is a waiting list of people who want to adopt Down's Syndrome children.

And later in life, killing the profoundly disabled by starving and dehydrating them to death is now accepted, not just by neo-Nazi fringe elements, but by much of the public at large. In the case of elderly stroke victim Marjorie Nighbert, she begged for food and water as she was being starved and dehydrated, but a judge ruled she was not mentally competant to revoke her living will. She died as a result.

Forced abortion has become a greater problem in the US and abroad. Over half of women who have had abortions state that it was not their choice, but that a parent or boyfriend forced or coerced them. This is particularly common in cases where a young girl has been raped by a father or stepfather. Some attempts have been made to lessen this problem by passing laws requiring that a woman or girl sign a consent form, but Planned Parenthood opposes even this slight measure.

Women also report that abortionists lie to them about the stage of development of the baby to be aborted, refuse to give good information about alternatives to abortion, and don't mention the complications possible in abortion- perforation of the uterus requiring hysterectomy, breast cancer, and death from complications all being among the documented possibilities.

Pregnancy is a temporary condition which will soon be over, and the child produced can be given to adoptive parents desperate for a child. Where there is no truly life-threatening condition involved, there is little point to a woman or girl enduring the risks and trauma of an abortion when there is an alternative.

Learn more about this author, Nissa Annakindt.
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